Council honors couple as county's Artists of the Year

Independently, Tom and Lisa Head have a knack for tearing things apart.

Tom's family will tell you he dismantled various objects from an early age. He recalls an incident from his childhood in Germany when he tore apart a new scooter thinking that all the parts could be shipped to the States when he moved - only to have the shipment never materialize.

When Lisa moved to Pennsylvania, she wanted to learn how to create the rye straw baskets native to the area so she sat on the kitchen floor and ripped one apart just to see how it was made.

Together, they have built a simple life in an old home in the western end of the county near Loysville that offers space for both to pursue their art.

That pursuit recently garnered them the honor of Artists of the Year from the Perry County Council of the Arts.

The award came as a total surprise to the couple. Lisa was at work on a nearby farm so Tom, who isn't so fond of answering the phone, picked it up when an arts council representative called to ask if they would accept the award as a couple. His response? He had to talk to Lisa first.

She agreed and on Nov. 17 they accepted the award during the council's annual dinner held at Carson Long Military Institute.

The award comes after years of fine-tuning the art forms that began to take shape in rural Kentucky. Back in Estell County, Lisa was doing her thing and Tom was doing his thing for a while before they became a couple.

It could be said that Tom inherited a knack for the arts from his mother who was an abstract artist and his grandmother who was a sculptor. Art was always in and around the family so it was only natural that one day Tom would succumb to its allure. He started to build things with wire, eventually teaching himself the art of wood carving. His works follow the tradition of Wilhelm Schimmel, a renowned early 19th century carver.

Images from the Garden of Eden tend to be a recurring theme in Tom's creations. The animals, people and trees featured in the works simply fit what he likes to carve. "It's all sort of paradise lost," he said.

His works typically feature a dull, painted finish though Tom himself says he doesn't have a particular method for painting the carvings. He's just looking to avoid a plastic appearance. "I want my work to fit in good with antiques and in order to do that I sort of dull it down and make it a little primitive.'

Lisa's journey into the life of an artist began when she moved to Kentucky with a group of people looking for an alternative lifestyle in the early 1970s. "The group I was with was definitely going back to the earth," she said.

The group settled on a cattle farm with a store and three or four houses. Lisa started making baskets six or seven months into her stay, imitating what others were doing as they made Appalachian-style baskets out of bark. It wasn't long before she was creating her own designs.

That the two ended up in Perry County is truly a story of the phoenix rising from the ashes. Their home in Kentucky was rural even by Perry County standards. Their children, for example, would need to endure a 90-minute bus ride just to get to school. And farming just wasn't happening for them. "It was becoming clear to us that we really didn't want to farm. We wanted to be artists," Lisa said.

Then, the studio burned down. It was time to go. "The tragedy of all my tools burning up in my shop was motivation," Tom said.

His carvings were already selling through family connections in Maryland and Pennsylvania so when a family member found a Civil War-era home in the western end of Perry County, the family made the move, which they have not regretted.

Lisa explained that they have wonderful access to raw materials in the county. The wood for Tom's carving comes from the Amish. Lisa's rye straw is harvested from a farm not far down the road. She's even started growing sweet grass in the garden that she can harvest for use in her baskets.

The move even prompted a new direction for Lisa's artistry. She began experimenting with forms of basketry that were native to the area including traditional dough raising baskets and bee skeps, which have become one of her more popular creations. The style was first introduced to the United States in the 1700s as an integral part of beekeeping.

Both arts take a lot of experimenting, which, Tom and Lisa agree, is part of the creative process. "Especially for you," Lisa says to Tom. "Each piece is something you execute for the first time.'

The couple will next exhibit their works in January at the Designer Craftsmen Show of Philadelphia, but readers can take a look anytime at their Web site at headcollection.com.